[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21950]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
           MANDATES ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Yesterday, Democrats in the Senate unveiled a much 
anticipated new compromise on health care reform, and as my late father 
used to say, ``Here comes the new guy. He looks a lot like the old 
guy.''
  The compromise for government-run insurance is more government-run 
insurance, but I rise this morning to draw particular attention to a 
proposal in the compromise that would force Americans who don't have 
health insurance to buy it. Under the proposal, everybody would be 
forced to buy government-approved policies, and if you don't, families 
could face tax penalties of $3,800 per year and, individuals, $950 if 
they don't comply. Well, none other than candidate for President, now 
President, Barack Obama opposed such mandates.
  He said in a primary debate in January of '08 that you can mandate 
it, but there are still going to be people who can't afford it, and if 
they can't afford it, the question is: What are you going to do about 
it?
  More memorably, the President said on CNN's American Morning in 
February of '08 that if a mandate were the solution, we could try to 
solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house.
  Mr. President, I couldn't have said it better myself. The President 
was right. Mandates are not the answer. Let's scrap this government-run 
insurance plan and work in a bipartisan way to lower costs without more 
government, more mandates and more taxes.

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